Tuesday, October 23, 2012

It's Time for Sparrows!

With the warblers pretty much gone from Indiana and the leaves turning wonderful colors, the start of sparrow season is upon us here in central Indiana. Over the past couple weeks, I have been birding all over my area trying to find as many sparrow species as I can and it has turned out pretty well. I have been birding mostly with my brother and we have managed to find 14 species of sparrows since October 1!

Many of the sparrows have been extremely cooperative for photos as well!

Although this was taken in Minnesota during the Focus on Diversity Conference, I have seen this species here in Indiana this October.

White-throated Sparrows are one of the most common sparrows during the fall and winter in Indiana.

There have been large numbers of Fox Sparrow around this fall. (This photo was taken by my brother, Eric Ripma)

Lincoln's Sparrow is one of the less common sparrows in Indiana and is sought after by many of the local birders. (This photo was taken by my brother, Eric Ripma)

We also found a few other nice birds in addition to the sparrows. Both Pine Siskins and Purple Finches have arrived in huge numbers here. Even though the warbler numbers are down, we have been finding more Orange-crowned Warblers in the last few weeks!

A Purple Finch at a new park that we explored on the far west side of Indianapolis.

Have you been finding a lot of sparrows around you? I know that many people have a lot of trouble identifying the sparrows and many birders get so frustrated that they just ignore them all completely! We have been working on some article on my blog, NuttyBirder.com, to help people with this problem. The first post in a long series of sparrow identification posts is currently up so be sure to follow along as we work our way through sparrow id! The post can be found here.

I love our little sparrows too. I hope we have a lot of Fox Sparrows. Last year, not one visited our feeders.... I haven't seen any in our yard this season yet either, but if you're already seeing lots of them, we're only a state over!! :-)

The white-crowned sparrows are returning to Tucson and I am starting to see them everywhere. I am still waiting to see the returning juncos and others. I still have so much to learn about identifying them so I plan on checking out your blogpost as well!

Wow, 14 species of sparrows in the month of October is quite something! I've seen lots of White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows this fall. A few Fox and Lincoln's, as well. A couple of Harris's Sparrows have been seen in our area. I've got my fingers crossed that I will have a sighting soon. Wonderful post!

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